J Ramanand's "Dropping Off" (short story, free): Since few of us use our head, why not let out the spare capacity?

This could have been hilarious satire, but that's left as an exercise for another author. Author takes the idea literally.

Story summary.

Idea is: since most of us are supposed to waste most of the potential of our brains, why not rent out the spare processing capacity? So a machine plugs into the brain & does an externally programmed job, while the owner of the brain sleeps! The story is of a man employed by a company that does brain rentals, & his later disenchantment with the job.

Two key ideas of the story - brain renting & memory retention by unconscious thinking - have both been used before, but it was still a good read.

Fact sheet.

First published: The Scientific Indian, 1 December 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Related: Fiction about computers.